Zhou Zhengyu, deputy director of the Beijing municipal committee of communications announced in a recent press conference that the cheap bus fares that Beijingers have been enjoying during the Olympics will continue after the games. We are all in support of more public transport to save the environment and to ease traffic congestion, but we are noticing a disturbing trend in relation to buses in the last month. See if you too can spot the......

A center for public transportation security is now open at the People's Square subway station. The center, which will be open daily, from 8am to 8pm, aims to teach its visitors about safety issues on subways and buses. Gas masks, flame proof blankets and other safety related products will be on show. So for those of you wondering if your behavior on the subway has been acceptable, here's your chance to find out. [Source]......

In an article about official Olympic protest areas, the Wall Street Journal linked to some scanned pages from Olympic Security English, a training manual for Olympic police. We have reproduced those pages for your enjoyment. Poor Mr. Leer. He's an honest man. He can only make Indian pan cake. He's never seen a bomb. Yeah, right. Source: Enzaji Leer is caught red handed with the bomb!......

This just in from a reader tip. Via the easternmiles.com newsletter: In order to guarantee safety of civil air transport during Beijing Olympic Games period, Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has decided to implement special inspection measures in Beijing Capital Airport, Shanghai Hongqiao and Shanghai Pudong Airport, airports in Qingdao, Tianjin, Shenyang, Qinhuangdao, Shijiazhuang, Taiyuan, Jinan, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Hefei, Changchun, Harbin, Huhehaote, Dalian, and airports inside Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and Tibet Autonomous Region......

His name is Chen Jun. He's 18-years-old. And he was captured this morning in rural Anhui province, hundreds of kilometers from Shanghai. Some, actually most, facts are vague: In addition to cash and a laptop computer police say belonged to the victim Diana O'Brien, Chen was allegedly carrying "a weapon." We're also somewhat puzzled by this sentence: "The statement said police narrowed down suspects to Chen after they received reports that a medium-sized man was......

No injuries or deaths were reported1, surprisingly, but then again we left before it was all over (got tired of getting hit by shrapnel). The video starts sometime before midnight and ends sometime after. And yes, our ears are still ringing. Got Chinese New Year videos or photos you'd like to share? Leave links in a comment, or email us at tips@shanghaiist.com. Happy Year of the Rat, everyone! 1 On Tongren Lu.......

We arrived in an incredibly foggy but wonderfully warm Wenzhou on a business trip Wednesday morning. On our way from the airport into the city, we were forced to make a detour and found ourselves unable to make our way to our destination because an entire area had been cordoned off. All we could see was a HUGE plume of smoke billowing out from a building which made us wonder if someone had bombed it......

They say bad news travels fast. That Pudong gas blast we told you about on Saturday has made it to international news. The Associated Press, Reuters, the International Herald Tribune, BBC, Times of India, ABC (Australia) all reported on the blast. The AP reports that four deaths have been confirmed and more than two dozen people were injured from the explosion. Our hearts go out to the family of the 29 year old cyclist from......

Southeast Asian pact exposes rifts [NY Times] Southeast Asian leaders signed a charter here today that was drafted as a watershed document to bind the region together as a European-style economic community but has instead exposed the sharp divisions over Myanmar and other issues among the signatories.Malaysia busts DVD lab in its biggest raid in 2007 [Reuters] Malaysia has raided a laboratory capable of churning out $52 million worth of pirated DVDs a year in......

If you love pizza, pasta, risotto and the rest, then no doubt you've come across some shocking examples of pseudo-Italian cuisine in Shanghai. However, the experience of one Shanghaiist reader at Babela's Kitchen, the newest establishment in the Food Park on the corner of Beijing Lu and Jiangning Lu, was truly scary. "I found a shard of glass as big as my little finger in my risotto, after I'd already put it in my mouth.......

China confirms presence of toxic substance in bead toys [Economic Times] China's quality control watch dog has confirmed that the bead toys which the US and Australia have recalled in millions over safety fears contain toxic substance. US sees no rapid shift in China's currency reserves [AFP] Amid a plunging US dollar, China has again threatened to diversify its mountain of dollar foreign reserves but US officials are unperturbed while experts do not see a......

The space station, the Olympic pigs and white-collar wages Shanghaiist scans thousands of China headlines every single day, and believe us, we do want to believe all the news we read here in China, but every now and then, we come across something that makes us remind ourselves to take EVERYTHING we read with a great pinch of salt, no matter how authoritative the source may sound. Just yesterday, for instance, China Daily reported that......

The People's Square station signage will soon get a makeover to get up-to-date with Line 8's signs. The new Line 8 platform will open by year's end. Metro Line 13, which has 4 planned stops servicing the future World Expo site, will be branded as a World Expo line. This is part of a move to add culture to the Shanghai subway system. The mother of the young man who was trapped and killed......

So in the meanwhile, it's become kind of fashionable to blame Beijing for the mess in "Myanmar". Sure, Russia and India have gotten some of the blame for failing to rein in Burma's ruthless junta. ASEAN has also been put to shame for its impotence in handling Burma, and even Singapore's conservative Straits Times (subscription required) has begun to wonder aloud if it's not the right time to suspend Burma's membership in ASEAN, admitting that......

China hurting in world opinion polls [China Post] In a survey covering 18 countries which account for 56 percent of the world's population, 38 percent said China can be trusted to act responsibly while 52 percent said the country can't be trusted. Letter accuses China's party of drift [Los Angeles Times] A rare open letter signed by 17 former top officials and conservative Marxist scholars ahead of a key party meeting accuses China's top......

China to report military data to UN [Al Jazeera] China says it will provide the United Nations with information on its military spending and arms deals for the first time in more than a decade. Beijing launches food safety crackdown [Washington Post] Beijing is targeting unlicensed restaurants and checking the quality of many foods in a crackdown on unsafe products less than a year before the city welcomes hundreds of thousands of visitors to the......

Pigs are back in the headlines once again, and with a vengeance. Here is an interesting juxtapose of three pig-related news stories found via the informative China Digital Times. We first read on the Beijing News that a "Zero-Profit Pork Alliance" consisting of about 150 supermarkets in Chongqing that came together on Aug 10 in a bold move to slow down and reverse rising pork prices has all but collapsed: The participating stores did surprise......

Shanghai's booming subway [LA Times] The Chinese metropolis was even later than L.A. in building its system. But it is already big, with plans to make it the biggest within a decade. Shanghai: Art Deco capital - for now [The Telegraph] Just as Shanghai's priceless architectural legacy is gaining overdue recognition, it faces new threats from developers, reports Richard Spencer. Don't exaggerate product quality issues--China [The Inquirer] Concerns about the quality and safety of products......

Japan's idea of 'broader Asia' partnership irks China [Sydney Morning Herald] The Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, has called for a "broader Asia" partnership of democracies to include India, the US and Australia but omit the region's superpower, China. Jailed dissident's wife under house arrest in Beijing [The Guardian] The wife of jailed Chinese activist Yuan Weijing is under house arrest tonight less than 24 hours before she was due to fly to the Philippines......

China reporters probing bridge disaster "beaten" [Reuters] Chinese journalists probing a bridge collapse that killed dozens of people said they were harassed and beaten by local thugs, exposing the state-run media's see-saw struggle between control and candor. China blows up collapsed bridge in search for more victims [Xinhua] The new bridge which collapsed four days ago was blown up early Friday morning in a desperate effort to find out more victims as chances of finding......

Oldest profession flourishes in China [Washington Post] No longer limited to well-known bars or a growing number of karaoke parlors, prostitutes are everywhere in China today, branching out onto college campuses, moving into private residential compounds and approaching customers on mobile phone networks. Mattel recalls 9 million toys made in China [NPR] Mattel issues a recall affecting more than 9 million toys made in China, citing magnets that could be swallowed and possible problems with......

Shanghaiist is going to give Senator Clinton the benefit of the doubt -- that she actually knows better but is just being the politician that everybody expects her to be. But the following infuriatingly pandering comment puts Senator Clinton right up there with the lovely Senator Schumer on this Shanghaiist's "too-political-for-America's-own-good" list:"We have to have tougher standards on what they import into this country," she said. I don't want to eat bad food from China......

This photo was taken at the Changshu Lu subway station yesterday. See that new yellow sign? It says:When the alarm starts sounding and the platform screen door lights start to blink, please do not board or alight the train. We wonder if that sign has come up because of last month's death of the unlucky man who got caught between the subway and platform screen doors. Micah Sittig has a translation of a chilling eye-witness......

Hu in new bid to tighten screws on rival faction, by Chua Chin Hon of the Straits Times:One has died from an undisclosed illness while another is already behind bars on corruption charges. But there appears to be no let-up in Chinese President Hu Jintao's attempts to put the squeeze on members of the rival Shanghai faction, a group of senior leaders and officials allied with his predecessor Jiang Zemin. News emerged in recent days......

China chokes on e-waste Guiyu is a modern day gold rush town. But instead of panning for gold in babbling streams, workers shift through piles of broken old computer parts in acrid smelling shacks, smelting down parts with crude equipment to extract valuable metals. Giant pandas 'expanding habitat' in China Researchers in China say they have seen encouraging signs of an increase in giant panda numbers in the country's largest panda reserve. As concerns......

We don't know how it happened, but it did. No, wait a minute. With the driving/riding etiquette of people around here, we're actually surprised it didn't happen more often. This woman, presumably hurrying her way to somewhere (the Chinese would say 赶去投胎, which literally means running off to her next reincarnation) couldn't stop in time when the lights turned red, and rammed her electric bike into the back of the bus. As a result, both......

China's disabled children are sold into slavery as beggars [The Guardian] As Beijing prepares for the Olympics, racketeers live well off their street army of exploited teenagers. China overtakes Germany as world's No 3 carmaker [The Guardian] Figures show China increased its vehicle output by 30% last year and is closing in on Japan's No 2 spot. Huaihe River faces severe flood-control challenge [China Daily] The middle and lower reaches of the Huaihe River, China's......

Despite some pretty damning arguments regarding the plausibility of blending cardboard and caustic soda into baozi, steamed pork buns, the internets are chattering again: Government conspiracy and cover-up! The fake buns being fake is itself fake! It's a bit like unpicking the speech of an 8-year-old who has just discovered double-negatives-- It's not not Opposite Day, not!-- but we'll do our best. Officials searched Beijing high and low for cardboard buns, and concluded that overzealous......

GDP grows 11.9% in second quarter China's annual economic growth surged to an 11- year high of 11.9 percent in the second quarter, cementing expectations for tighter policy to keep the world's fastest-growing major economy from overheating. Beijing also blistered ahead, growing at 12.1% in the same period. Vatican: Beijing bishop a ‘very good’ candidate Despite not being chosen by the pope, the new Beijing bishop is a “very good” candidate, the Vatican said Wednesday......

Latest in the series of food safety scandals to rock China: the Philippine Bureau of Food and Drugs has found traces of the cancer-causing agent formaldehyde in the White Rabbit candies produced in Shanghai by the Guan Sheng Yuan Group. We must admit we were a little taken aback because the yummilicious milk candy was one of our favourites growing up several thousand miles away in Singapore! Shanghai Daily tells us that the White Rabbit......